Placing small-scale farmers, rural populations at heart of climate discussions: IFAD

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is organising and will be active in over twenty events at COP27 to highlight the challenges and solutions that small-scale farmers need to feed a growing population while adapting to the escalating impacts of climate change.

These events, IFAD wants to ensure small-scale farmers and rural populations from developing countries receive the attention and funding they urgently need.

Small-scale farmers are essential to global food security and stability, IFAD said on Friday.

They produce one third of the world’s food (as much as 80 percent in many developing countries) yet their livelihoods and capacity to feed the planet are threatened by ever-increasing extreme weather events, erratic and changing rain patterns and the deterioration of ecosystems.

Solutions to help small-scale farmers adapt exist and provide multiple benefits, but significant investments are urgently required to implement change at a global scale.